M. Vicky Sylvester offers ‘Experience Is A Woman’ as poetic gift

By Ezekiel Fajenyo

THROUGH well-crafted works over the years such as The Cabals and the Naked Dance, Zuma Rock, A Plague of Many Colours, Inikpi Om’ldoko and Long Shadows as well as editing Critical Perspectives on Odia Ofeimun, Understanding the Writings of Nigerian Women, Studies in Buchi Emecheta and Emerging Perspectives on Abubakar Gimba, the foremost scholar, poet, playwight, biographer and literacy advocate, Professor Muguember Vicky Sylvester recently published her latest work of poetry, Experience Is A Woman and Other Poems.

Divided into four main parts each with a collection of poems of diverse thematic and aesthetic thrusts, the work is an extension of what she has been known to do, exposing, the crushing crudities of the contemporary world while providing some illumination and what should be done to pursue righteousness nobility and socio-political transformation. The poems speak to the peculiar circumstances of our society as a growing world with heavily flawed socio-political structure and economic weakness in its soul.

The first part is titled ‘Of Academics’ and made up of six poems which depict the troubles of the academic world- insensitivity of students and teachers, meaninglessness of examinations and the idea of ‘sorting’ (cheating) during exams, the growing feeling among youth that education is a scam, rat race for certification, disregard for women education, plagiarism among scholars, dearth of creativity and imagination, absenteeism from school, pursuit of courses out of sheer obscenity and misunderstanding of their demands, etc.

In ‘Examination system’, the poet skillfully highlights these obscenities, revealing the empty life of rumour-mongering and gossips among those who should be committed to the pursuit of education and enlightenment: “Here we are never worn out rambling about oil, /tweeting about the cost of food and devalued Naira” while “Education system stuck in bunkers…” The poet, in a personification, maintains that “the exams are now hyenas threatening the lion, /examiners and examinees wield various weapons…”. She reveals that “Lecturers talk to help empty classrooms,/summarizing texts to a few mate-taking students/fanning themselves with not pads”, the security personnel “fan their necks under the trees” while students are only “planning break ins for exam questions/ that flung education out (of) the windows”. Students cheat through “phones for google search and AI” as they sit in “Overcrowded classrooms burst at the seams/ in the time of tests and examinations” and even the “phones invigilators” only use their time conversing “the frequent drop ins/ in the race for examinations and certificates”.

These robust images and symbols of revelation on the stagnant, porous, sheer meaninglessness of education share correspondence with what we see in “Minds in shackles”, a poem which stretches the boundary of the revelation on education: “the decline in reading is universal?/ The UK teacher laments the burden/ of marking copied scripts./ The once cherished pursuits of knowledge/ now tainted by plagiarism’s stain”, “TV” has usurped hours of reading,/ the cell phone took thinking off the block,/ now Facebook has swept away the muse…/ confirmed writing a non-business venture./ The muse of Amos Tutuola will confirm/ lack of climate for inspiration and creativity soldier on./ Free thinking, now in shackles…”. The poet reveals that scholars select “as in a grocery store their choice courses” like “medicine, engineering, and architecture” though they are “Bounded men, leaping barefooted”. They firmly hold “on to the groceries,/ unwilling to pay the price./ Majority hope to sign out without reading,/ everyone secretly nurses the desire of a degrees,/ all think of the degree in them,/ to be acquired as a past time without the books,/ the civil service rules come handy/ after the exams”. The sharp-edged images depict proven impression of intellectualism as a sheer charade, an exercise needing no active conjuration of brains and thoughtfulness as technology is here to do the work of thinking creativity and imagination.

The fairly long poem, “The call of the globe” intensifies the poet’s exploration of the theme of contemporary education but with a focus on the world’s attention on women. In the first segment of the poem, the world is sensitized to the goodness of education for women which should “build an army adored for their abilities/ not just their bodies”. Education should breed “equality for all,/ ‘women’s rights are human’s rights;/ and human’s rights we must uphold…/ ignite the flames of gender development”. It should bring enlightenment and mass development all over the universe to people including “individuals/ whose faces have been in the dust from birth/ with no experience of a conventional school”. Education should be an element of development also for people in the rural areas in order for “Inclusivity and justice must prevail” and even “farmers’/ children can find time for” and their “special skills… enhanced”. But though the world’s voice supports such noble moves and programmes, our home governments often leave such graceful assignments in the hands of “militating forces” which include “the world bank and foreign universities” and our absolute reliance on “the British Council” can only “conceptualize education, community and gender/ with a selected population of villagers/ and sampled the opinions of 50 people” with tools made up of “a structured questionnaire/… personal interviews with an interpreter/… tabular form data”. The poet’s criticism is established: 50 people in a population of over 200 million? And such other tools amongst the largely uneducated the poor and the deprived? Of what relevance could such be? What outcome from such heavily limited, claustrophobic system contribute the ideas of national development, women education, eradication of poverty and promotion of equity? The result is one of darkness, stagnation, self-deceit, immobility and social irrelevance. This is the colour of what essentially prevails in the developing countries led by insensitive, unconcerned, deceptive, colourless and erratic persons!

Even when the self-anointed foreign researchers and “developers” act, as the “messenger”, what they often encounter in the remote places are people “unclad in pools of illiteracy…./ there is a small river where…/ drinking water fetched,/ drank and diseases contracted”. The only song on the lips of women in such places is “a cry out for help;/ stamp out poverty, ignorance,/ early marriage and V.V.F! “Rather than depend on external bodies to do this, African universities have a duty of urgent commitment, play out their role and struggle for people’s emancipation from the menacing grip of poverty, ignorance, darkness, helplessness, ill-health and illiteracy because what the local people only stick to are “special abilities in carpentry, pottery,/ weaving, traditional medicine, carving and fishing”. Our researchers and scholars must open people’s eyes to “more sophisticated manners” by themselves waking “up to the call,/ Watch your contemporaries in the UK, the US and the Netherlands,/ producing resilient top-class academics./ VSO’s objective we must fulfil,/ to produce skilled market,/ with your efforts, Western collaboration and/ funding, we will reach new communities”. Characteristically, the images rhymes emphasize the university of the treated concept: equity/universities, illiteracy/pottery, needed/erected/educated/market.

In “Campus tit bits”, the poet returns to the world of gradating students who discuss the society, politics and their own future and from which the realities of inhibiting features of tribalism, favouritism, nepotism, regionalism, religious distrust and suspicious, joblessness, lack of infrastructure, oil pollution and the erosion of marriage values, are exposed, so dramatically. Rather than feel proud of completing their education, they voice out what they honestly feel about a questionable society which has no promising place for offspring of the poor, despite their education. One wonders why a person with “less than quarter page profile’ become a governor with only a reference when Sambo is the subject” (15) and another speaks of the dangers of tribal and nepotistic manifestations: “I am from the traditional seat of monarchy and artistry,/ look around educated, poor, insignificant lot with long history”; he speaks of “the Yoruba in the ministries and Igbo in land allocations,/ Daughters and sons and tribes men terrain the senate and legislature,/Parastatals and now government houses and universities/Are theirs to pick and choose/ My Edo people don’t want you near when they get there”. Position of honour, recognition, wealth are only preserved for the rich and powerful from specific ethnic groups in the country while the poor, wretched and helpless are abandoned, forgotten. One student hoping to go into agriculture is not unaware of the absence of infrastructure: “When you see poverty and unemployment in the Middle Belt,/ My Benue state with rich soil, able hands and good yield,/ no roads and infrastructure to occupy them;/ The millions of youth in the street make you rethink”. A graduate from the Niger Delta area speaks of oil which “don spoil everything./ The rains fall in flooded sunshine on dark empty land…./ travelers scramble for seedless arranges”. Despite oil pollution, hunger, deprivation, floods and “dark empty land” of the environment, it is still better than some place in the extensively undeveloped parts: “na now I see say true Niger Delta better pass some up here oo!” A graduate plans to collect his papers and go to “England to do my masters,/ That na new modality for quick employment in the private sector “while another talks of an urgent marriage with his lover with whom she served “in his father’s firm and will start there”.

One interesting feature of this poem is the sense of drama as the graduates play roles and dialogue in such a way that their images and symbols of thematic directions are simply expose. Another feature is their occasional resort to the use of pidgin English which gives strength to yet another feature- humans! Sad and anger-bearing as their terrifying revelations are, the poet carefully uses their tongues to expose the verisimilitude of incidents and names which confirm the truth of their concerns, as youth in a society without an iota of plans or strategies to influence their future, positively! There are names of persons and places to establish the cogency of the message.

The tone of “What post?” is radically explosive because the poet-persona calls on women to play out their role in society without fear, with the coming of a new political dispensation. It is no time to display humility, but fight out what entails women’s pride, recognition and honour. They have no reason to be discouraged, whatsoever: “Assess the good you have encased, / … cause the heart to kindle soft desires/ of support beyond the moment”. The poet knows that women would be considered for “many posts…/ in the new dispensation” and “the eyes sparkle at these wishes/ with right reasons on the lips”; they must “show some zeal/ the affront is ours lady, / who professes a worthy cause,/ ours as women who feel humanity”. The tool women need to express themselves is to “wear truth and forestall the ruin/ of our political clime./ Truth alone can defend,/ join the watchman/ while we babysitting”. When have a duty to fight for their rights and right the wrongs of our political experience, over the years. This is the essence of their “humanity” for which they must “put away that humility”. The men who polluted, entrapped, exploited society with their odiously pestilential, ignoble and shameless mannerisms have to be stopped: “For every woman is a mother,/ brush away snickering ridicule/ from men with no fear of the creator,/ and no honour for our values, / truth makes queens out of saints”.

“Known by her name” is the sixth poem under “Of Academe” and it is a ridicule of the insensitive leadership of those in positions of power but know close to nothing about those in their service. Though the author of “books display… in the cubicle” is very mush present “at an exhibition”, it was only one of the officials who took interest in one of the books on display which “spoke of Pan Nigeria from cover to cover./ It noted attitudes that drove Nigerians to hypertension,/ got them killed with, magun,/ told of citizens, indigenes and contract employment”. It was obvious that the official who saw the book at the “national event” did not know that the author was a participant but his boss later made him “director of research, monitoring/ and evaluation” though not unaware of the officials, who at the exhibition, “laughed heartily moving on,/ ashamed of their portraits in the green book”. But “the deputy boss” received a catalogue of “calls, enquiries, interests/ from the international communities./ He weaves the new boss/ takes, half-truths and lies./ the Nigerian factor they say,/ the author busy, unknowing/ The news came by cell phone/ at nightfall/ from the new director,/ requesting for a cheque book and keys/ to yet to be commissioned office,/ till the roses wither”. But there was another call to the author at “morn” followed with a question: “Are you the author? / His Excellency will see you at 10”. The themes, which emerge here, include a celebration of gross ignorance, dictatorship, leadership insensitivity, suspicion and hatred for writers, mistreatment of value of education, arrogance of power and misuse of socio-cultural events. Indeed, the culture of reading is not celebrated by the ignorance-breeding Nigerian leaders.

In the poems under this section, the poet exposes, in diverse ways, a society’s misunderstanding and misapplication of education though it should serve as a reliable force of liberation, knowledge societal development and self-development. A wrongful use of education breeds socio-political crises tribe-ethnic dilemma, retardation of progress in various dimensions, vacuity of ideological inclinations, poverty, urban and rural violence and joblessness, especially among the youths.

Section Two of the poetry collection is “Of Love, Nature And Death”. Twenty Five poems are grouped under this title. The poem, “Love is never far” is a narration on how the poet-persona met with this young, mysterious and caring man at a “quiet late afternoon waiting for a meal/ in a Senegalese hotel”. The man was “a neat figure walk down the sea side” The poet-persona was longing for love as clearly symbolized by the “fresh, green coconut” which a “teenage boy” slashed “like an orange in two halves,/ handing he two pieces over with a plastic spoon. The longing for love provoked first, a careful stepping because, “I was risk-averse of the tarazoed steps/ I had to run to catch the teenager capturing my imagination./ A potential diamond for my coconut desire”. The teenager was some muse, a “potential diamond for my coconut desire” which was “offered/with a touch of sensuality and see waves in the distance…./walking away hand in hand in a relationship formed in/ two and a half hours, two and a half hours”. The imagination which was supposed to be of some distance came closer and got consummated in the significantly repeated “two and a half hours’. Imagination is rich, fecund, powerful and does not respect a distance when a writer is close to nature, ‘sea waves” provoking a sense of creativity and productivity as imaged by “a touch of sensuality” and the orange in two halves”. The sense of abundance love and availability is imaged in “fresh, green coconut”. The poet-persona ends in a happy mood as the power of love grips him to a new consciousness: “Love is a matter of distance, some accident, vague/ but not far away when hearts reach out”. Aside the exploration of the theme of love through an encounter with nature, there is alliteration in, “The stillness settling over us, closing the distance” and “a straight unsmiling face to the surprise of staff”.

“Another lockdown morning” celebrates, in a light mood, the freedom enjoyed by natural elements in the period of lockdown propelled by the Covid-19 epidemic which terrified the universe and made man a captive in his home and work. While man lived in fear, unwilling to associate with others and mindful of places they visited aside their nose being covered with some masks, animals mixed well, ate together and moved around, unmindful of the circumstances plaguing man and his thoughts and actions. In the poem, man is satirized as fearful, self-enchaining and in captivity while pretending to be above all other animals. While the lonely poet-persona is driving to “the golf course”, he encounters “trees and dirty waters that swallow my balls,/ The crocks that come out of waters/ sunning their rough bodies undisturbed,/ Unmasked, unafraid of the virus”. The crocks and “unmasked chicken and chicks choose my path…/ undisturbed on the spacious empty crescent”. Equally, “goats cross easily” though “the road is deserted…”. In “Lost love”, the poet-persona laments the loss of a beautiful, fulfilling and love-strung days with a lover who appeared seriously caring and committed to the affair which was blessed by nature: “It is not the hide and seek pursuit/ that took root that first day harmattan…./It is the cuddles that wrapped me to sleep,/ eyes on the mango tree in bloom,…./ It’s another nestled in your metropolis …../ It’s your running steps to the next floor,/ harsh creak of bed boards…”. The poet-persona is saddened by lost promises, moments of sweet togetherness, “the dances and touches”. Now, the story has changed and so the feeling: “My heart beats low…./ a shadow of a forgotten era…./ weakens the aroma of my coffee,/ buries the hunger in tons of thoughts…./ of ruined tender memories.

The poet-persona in “Peace merchant your name”/ honours the power of peace as harbinger of healing and unity and dampener of wrong “emotions”, “wicked dreams” “hurt feelings”. In a world whose language is of tempest, violence, disunity, hatred and rancour, peace can bring about sanity, healing, togetherness and fruitful development: “The murky world around us,/ you heal with your/ life merchandise of peace”. Equally, courage can dispel fears! The rhetorical questions in the poem enlarge the thematic framework of the poem: “What emotions can peace not heal?…./ What emotions can peace not evoke?…./ What wicked dreams can peace not dampen?…./ What fears can courage not dispel?”.
“The food basket” echoes what Benue State, Nigeria, is known for situation on ground has proved quite ugly and unsatisfactory because there is growing absence of sufficient number of famers, lack of interest in farm work, abandonment of industries to process farm produce due to “a conspiracy of boardrooms and foreign missions./ The lack luster policy process in government houses/ offer somber clouds of sickness and rottenness/for the filled baskets of food”. The absurd situation, leading to hunger and starvation, is propelled by strong images of the trees remain pregnant “without attention, “many dropped grumblingly and got hurt” and “a growing gloom enveloped my soul,/ the farm suddenly desolate”; also as “the green landscape shrunk,/ turning bleak the warm ecstatic bloom…/ The lusty fruits offered but sad songs/ for the industries are overgrown with weeds…”. Government’s insensitivity, lack of encouragement of people, dwindling industrial commitments and absence of attention to prospects of agriculture are some of the factors causing hunger and starvation. There are elements of alliteration such as: dread for the coming daylight drove out the cold” and “somber clouds for sickness and rottenness”. Life is a mystery and of a multiplicity of layers of experience as treated in “Nature nurtures”. The poet-persona maintains that “life is filled with sweetness./…bitterness./…with hills,/ …valleys./…withmen,/…with women,/all share tears and laughter”. Life’s immensity and diversity contain “relaxation tears laughter” and as countries have “great leaders,/ so are they populated with greedy pretenders,/each needs just a little time to prove”. There are also men and women as well as moon and sun, night and day all of them being served by Nature which “supplies the world richly…”. This poem boasts of simple diction and end rhymes: “sweetness/bitterness”, “hills/valleys”, “men/women”, “leaders/pretenders” and “meantime/clime”. In the poem “Gold death”, the concern is with the constancy of death which is imagined to have been caused by “hunger and dirty water./…the sugar canes from virus filled drainages./ The children’s playgrounds and windowless sleep sports,/ All virus crime units”. Environmental pollution, lack of infrastructure and poverty are some common plagues in society. They pave way for cheap deaths! This poem shares thematic partnership with “Like bird’s songs” which equally depicts crises of poverty, ill-health, failed government policies, exploitation, selfishness, greed, wastefulness, and bad leadership. The poet-persona writes of “the bodies that lay like shredded meat/on lands once filled with melodious voices”. This is a sickly land of “dark nights”, “wailing mothers”, “drunk, passionate lover”, “Weeks blew away lives,/ and the soil reclaimed its own”, “foot paths with no names,/ mother and child waited in vain for the drugs/ promised the week before…./ He died this morning in her feverish arms”. It is a ugly land of fake budgets: “One hundred and sixty million spent/on drugs for this ailment/Emerged from gold extraction the governor says”; a land in which the populace is totally helpless: “In their griefs enveloped houses,/they force corn pap and lots of sugar/down throats too ill to swallow…/They answer greetings and sorry/ like the winds that pass them by”. Aside the tragic tone, the poem has a captivating smile: “Like corn and wheat blended for swallow…” and a body of personifications: “windy night woke the drunk…” and “dark nights could not be silenced” as well as tacit economy of words. The end rhymes here are: “carry/sorry” and “ailment/spent”.

Part Three of the Collection is titled “Of Society And Social Milieu” with some 27 poems.
“The rape craze! “depicts one of the commonest social crises among the youth- the desire for rape. An evil, demonic exercise which government institutions, security forces, religious bodies, the media and individuals find it difficult to fight, it keeps spreading though not exactly a recent phenomenon: “Rape was always there/ like cult murders for breasts and clits…”. The evil, lust-crazy, immoral society has promoted it , directly or indirectly through ineffective laws which unseeingly embrace “enforcement agencies in/ support of perpetrators who engage PR strategists”, the church only “shook its head sadly,/…. Not to protect victims/ without a voice” and the media “silence dissenting voices”; the corrupt society lacks “a voice/ of responsibility to reduce the scourge” as “impunity reigns, awards hug sex/ and DV offenders in the law-making houses/ Where society floats in embrace of corruption”. Teenagers, “abandoned pregnant babies” cry and some die as some girls tremble “uncontrollably with no help”. Prostitution, poverty, insensitivity populate the social scene despite women groups which chastise “this undisciplined society” which promotes “trucks of naked-dancing women creating wealth…./The youth in markets and higher institutions/ aggressively campaigning with digital technology/ on street corners to partake/ rollick with the band wagon of abusers”. Rape is the apt symbol of moral depravity, social darkness, indiscipline, youth wastefulness in the contemporary society. The poet-persona, disturbed by the widening social phenomenon, asks: “Why are the women alone/in the fight against this rape craze?/Where are the Fathers?…”. The poem, “Frills” further exposes what the contemporary society oddly looks like especially through the social media, “Whatsapp and Instagram and others” in which people comment on: “politics and politicians”, killings, ritual activities, “horror videos”, “Nigeria’s failing, pointing at education, health, infrastructure” hardships, devalued Naira, international powers even as they equally comment on “individual like a shipwreck…” These are images of loss, pain, weakness and agony. There is a simile used in “… a shipwreck./ I will swim to show/ a stronger survivor…”

Love may be sweet and fulfilling but its rhythm fluctuates and situations change everytime as what matters now might not be of relevance thereafter. The poet-persona sees love as a thickly mysterious, mystically dazzling experience, a mirage. This is the focus in “Rhythm of love”, a poem of 11 lines in which the persona confesses that, “I, not only lose balance/ but lose the rhythm”. Love means different experience to different people and the river animal images are used to demonstrate the unstable, ever mobile, riddle-powered essence of the concept of love which suggests that man simply must find his own place: “… not just to find your way again/but to find your own rhythm;/ the rhythm of life and nature/ And love, oh yes love has a rhythm!” In the poem, “The look of love”, the persona sees the multidimensional power of love as capable of suppressing or killing temporary pain of frustration and enthroning joy and fulfillment, in persons. In a mood of appreciation, the persona acknowledges the expression of love in the lady: “Your eyes carry stories that bear joy and pains,/ Tales more than words could ever express…./ the look of love engages your face/ in a way only another love erases…./ Your eyes brighten, no longer burdened./ Tears no longer fall from your lured eyes…”. The poet is beautified with images of affection, appreciation, light, joy and fulfillment. There are a few and rhymes which intensifies the expressed potency of love: “eyes/ disguise”, “story/valley” and “eyes/smiles/while” and alliteration in, “…breaks, the sun shines” and “smothered smiles cannot disguise”.

“Cottons in my ears’ is a narrative poem of appreciation of motherly love, care, companionship. The mother died at 52 years and the deep spirit of association and connection between the dead and the living is projected by the poet-persona: “She passed away when I most needed her./She had always been the air I breathe”. The mother was a moralist and a keeper of secrets some of which the persona longs to forget: “you don’t need to explain cos I don’t care/whatever happened than was then/cos all that really matters now is you and me./Whatever was done is gone,/we can’t change it now”. The persona is now lonely, sad, sick, dejected: “Something has been taken from deep inside of me…..”. The persona feels downcast and desires to forget his painful past, of “Wounds so deep, they never show./ They never go away, like moving pictures in my head;/ for years and years, they’ve played”. While growing up, the persona suffered with the mother but the mother remained ever caring, full of grace, love, understanding and displayed love born of simplicity, concern and deep feeling. Despite “the darkness of my past” and “the helplessness inside”, the persona remembers the unique attributes of the mother” which birthed peace: “your cologne/your smile/your intelligence/you woo me, you corn me/ you tease me/you school me/ you give me a bunch of words to think about/ you invite me, you ignite me/ you like me, you love me/ you smile when I sing and whistle/ you keep me on my fee,…./all gone;/ all I have now ae the words,/my thoughts and this pen”. One feature of this poem is the use of flashbacks and another is the body of rich end rhymes: “scared/shared”, “cold/hold”, “hear/fear/ear/care”, “smile/lie”, “slide/inside”. There is a refrain which illustrates the deep loss of the past: “If I could, I would/take back the pain, I would…/if I could stand up and take the blame, I would./If I could take all my shame to the grave, I would”. Some alliterations are, “rain pounding roof with rooms…” “played pranks with people’s emotions”.

The lessons of the past are not always juicy and fulfilling but full of pains, discomfort, confusion and distress as part of life’s experiences. The poet-persona also demonstrates the power of love in “I know your wants” insisting that distance does not matter in a true relationship. The persona assures the lover that he would be committed, truthful and remain strong: “I know your wants,/will never let you down…/love is not a matter of distance,/just not far away./you are a reason to be strong,/the will to carry on”. Love should be potent force of solidarity, togetherness and shared feelings; it should promote strong intimacy, confidence and understanding without which the world becomes boring, stagnant, threatening and meaningless. The feeling of love overwhelms the persona: “… floods all over me/and I feel it like tidal waves/ rushing, washing over me;/restoring me and assuring…”. There is the tone of total submissiveness which erodes distance. Love is the theme established again by the poet-persona in “I once had something” but it is the love and affection reserved for nature, the past as symbolized by a tree to which he was close: “I don’t touch you the way I used to/ and I don’t call and write when I’m away…” The persona has fond memories of the permissiveness of nature, regaled with its beauty and rhetorically wonders if he ever had any other fulfilling encounter than what the tree provided: “who makes me feel the way/you make me feel?…/I said to the tree”. Leaving the environment to somewhere else made way for another person to take “my place/ and I got a stain that’s deeper/ than my years can imagine/waiting”. The fact is that modernity-symbolized by a movement away from tradition, “something”- has soiled, desecrated, muddied the world of the persona and his sense of loss, pain, dejection, frustration and confusion is fully registered through the images and rhetorical questions. There is a good use of personification in, “but memories pull the curtains and bring smiles”. In the poem, “A listening ear”, the poet-persona plays the role of an advisor and counsellor, asking people to take advice with caution and act with caution. He sees nothing bad in taking advice: “Listen, foul or fair, the sting/of a thorny rose is accompanied/ by its sweet fragrance”. Critics are essential but a good worker or leader would only “Listen with care…” and to the “flatterers” whose actions are hypocritically propelled by selfish ambitions, “all for their triumphant glory”. But the individual should always “Listen thrice to our inner-filled substance,/upon which millions of the unknown hope. The inner voice will hardly ever go wrong though “Your recommended oppointees/go the mile you tolerate/and crown you in shit or glory”.

In “Night of death and innocence”, the poet-persona narrates the encounter of widows in a local setting – the rituals and people’s responses to their situations. Some widows are made to go through “the world of atrocious perscriptions/of arrogant cultures sublet to matriarchs/long lost to unexplainable reason,/except her wifehood”. Widowhood is a moment of sadness, loss of identity, fear, ritual obscenities, loneliness and men’s attempts to sexually get even with the victims. The widow loses all features of dignified feminility: “The stereotyped measured…./loneliness stretched snake-like…./She swallowed the death water…./the shrewd reasoning first wife…/hidden from her… murderers”. Though she was the rich, township, civilized woman, “the loved city wife,/ the pretty face who cruised the big white car,/who bought the big black jeep for her retired father”, she face threats of a forceful, disdainful marriage to another man out of “faceless men offering prices/she could well pay a dozen” or get raped by the “town tramps” and “jealous whispers of death expectations” as a result of “the dirty water”. She had to be “watched by the lone one/one a lone rock surrounded by deep water”; she became lost “with little hope” but “instilled new strength” in herself to defeat fear, “determined to take or be take dead”. Saturated with symbols of fear, threats, lust, uncertainty, degradation, and sense of loss, the poem reveals the agonizing experiences of widows- regardless of social class – in a traditional setting. The simplicity of words used is empowered by alliterations such as “giving stony stares at the desires on faces” and “Secure in her simple lovely dresses”.

In “Matrimony waits”, the poet-persona narrates the experience of an eleven years old girl betrothed to a “well-appointed lawyer”, without the family showing interest in her personal intellectual growth but only “hopeful of a loaded celebration”; the family only longed after wealth and celebration: “A little education would complement my face,/ lots of naira better still dollars the final touch”. But her mother “was not deceived”, saw her through school, secured admission into the university and secretly attended a “Med school” which “unbelieving relatives” eventually knew of as well as the “mother-in law” who had “called her son” who travelled out of the country and later “returned years later with a white wife”. His family was rather shocked that the young lady had graduated and was on her way to the “NYSC and upcoming wedding”. The lesson? Determination leads to greatness and marriage should never stop one’s chosen path to self-fulfillment. The poem is light-heartedly told and the morality is unmissed- selfish, greedy interests should not jeopardize one’s chosen path in life!

Poverty, suffering, hunger, sexual irresponsibility and lust, marital uncertainty, a life of hopelessness and helplessness and isolation are some of the themes treated in “The living dead”, a graphic portrayal of people forced to live under the bridge: “The craggy women under the bridge/matched with equally craggy men on one side./The raggedly dressed children passed food and money…”. Unholy matrimonial unions are conceived under the bridge, where “the babies reared here, made on these mats’. It is a life of uncertainty, homelessness, cheap labour, suffering, social inconsequence and meaninglessness: “Daily their population grows/the mama—put and neighbourhood shops, their resting place;/the bridges are roofs for rain and dusk,/for these living and death melt into singleness”. The reference to “roofs” is quite ironical. The bridges are symbols of the identities of the people who live in abject penury, hopelessness and homelessness.

In “Millennium Freedom”, the poet-persona projects the meaning of freedom, in its multiple forms, to people in the contemporary world- they exhibit quite unusual characters and moral choices difficult to define such as: “My last born baby of 7 years/has got a girlfriend of 8 years”. The confusion in the poet-persona made way for the “Introduction” which “set me free of muted silences/that destabilized my family sphere”; it created some “Divided love imprisons” to be expressed though “the laughter of sunshine” or “the curdle of warm blankets/protects and shush my nights” and “each demands jealously/my presence”. Indeed, in the millennium, “the joy of freedom is wind in my hair” as freedom is observed according to one’s personal perspectives and intuitions: “A woman without a man/like man without woman loses happiness, / fulfillment, sometimes confidence…”. Every individual must have a way of experiencing the essence of freedom to encounter happiness, fulfillment, confidence in a world of much uncertainty, immorality, lust, obscene moral choices, recklessness, loneliness and unhappiness. Using the symbol of snakes, the poet-persona in “S/he shall be your enemy” treats the story of snakes who are often smart in hiding, relying on any available space, but which are yet exposed and discovered. Enemies of man, regardless of how they wish to hide away, will always be discovered: “A black snake…/toilet seat/Is no hiding place from a destined enemy/even if less crafty”. The “baby cobra” attempts all it could, sliding “behind the bottles for shield,/Behind the toilet bowl, sneaks under the mat;/A mistake in desperation” but it is betrayed by “white and red colours” and the ‘red mat under which it strove…./Exposing it to the ready curtain stick”. The lesson is obvious: no matter the hiding antics and strategies of known and unknown, seen and unseen enemies, they will be exposed! The alliterations here include, “white walls above white tiles” and “slides behind the bottles for shield” as end rhymes include “shield/stick/crafty”.

“Mystery of time” is faithful to its title- it celebrates the issue of time in man’s affairs. The poem obviously takes root from the Biblical story of time factor in the creation of the universe, of man and death as well as the reality of the Trinity (the relationship between the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit). Time is timeless in God’s own calendar and “Timelessness is the mystery” and “Timeless is the creator,/the Bible says”. God created the world and all that is in it “in 7 days, rested,/One thousand years is like a day”.

But man, unlike God, “counts time in seconds, minutes, hours/In days, months, years./Decades are 10 years,/Three and ten man withers,/Detests age and death,/His time is a sad mystery”. First, God’s superiority over man is established. Second, man’s understanding of time is limited, deceptive and of sad manifestation. Third, no man can ever understand the working mechanisms of God. Four, man has weaponized his fears, agony and sense of limitation. God is creator of time; He is timeless in His work. Time is a mysterious trap for man though God is not defined by man’s timing. Time moves on regardless of man’s life- it is independent, obtuse. There is a giant use of the Biblical allusion and echo and beautiful I play on ‘time’ as definer of the human space. The tone suggests some mockery of man.

“Healing thoughts” acknowledges the protective, healing power of nature on which man depends when his society becomes intolerably harsh, uncertain and gainless. The poet-persona sought refuge in “the murmuring winds…/rustling the leaves of mango trees/under which I court recovery/from tears and stiches of surgical knives”. Nature served as his preserver, dependable companion and life saver as seen in the images of “water dripping beddings”, “passion fruit dance”, “the bright sun… crowded willing leaves./Its momentary gentle warmth”. He was able to sleep and “wake to the taste of water that/satisfies my thirst,/cools my parched lips and troubled soul/radiates through my warm skin/from the peeping rays of the midday sun…”. Nature is a source of blessing and good health. It radiates with beauty, abundance and joy of fulfillment. There is an allusion to poet Donne’s work and alliterations: “Deity/fidelity” and “tears and stitches of surgical knives”.

Nature’s appreciation continues in “The eye” in which the poet-persona celebrates beauty and love in a “pretty girl” whose “voice washes over me” to breed happiness and fulfillment. She had “a gentle touch…/Her beauty, I feel in my soul/like the warmth of bright sunshine”. She was a “picture of youth that was/ peaceful calm, busy, sweet and bitter./A prime full of bliss…”. Nature is graceful, fecund, blessed, honourable, perfect, productive and nourishing and its effect is like ‘sudden return of electricity,/ the shouts of children, /the songs of rich harvest in a farm,/like the beauty of clean water”. It provides succour, “a graceful healthy body” and marvelous shade “for workacholics and the restive youth”; nature must be celebrated in full because “Celebrations keep us in touch with reality”- it is love and light that dims the pains and darkness from the past. The poem is rich in garden imagery.

Though the valentine happens every February 14th as a moment of expression of love and affection, the poet-persona in “A valentine” operates under the mood of lamentation and complaints, reeking out of plagues, sufferings, poverty, moral decades,/unhappiness, frustration, drugs addiction, joblessness and hunger pervading people in the society. For a people manacled by chains of “empty stomachs”, “petrol queues”, “fuel shortage”, “kerosene explosions”, “worn out shoes” “rubber slippers”, “Light of bush lamps”, there can be no form of expression of radiant joy, love, fellowship, good feeling at valentine. The society, projected through bold images of backwardness, stagnation and hopelessness, is one with “husbands laid off at the closed down factory./…hoards in the street,/victims of adulterated NNPC products./sing dirges on February 14th,/…..shaded blind eyes…./apparitions that metamorphose into ladies,/ prospecting in corners for will customers/ in celebration of Valentine”. This accursed society is deeply in need of drastic, transformational change and regeneration rather than for its citizens celebration a life of emptiness, hunger, starvation and poverty. The diction is simple and enriched by a few rhetorical questions. While the human society is exposed with its avalanche of crippling un-developmental syndrome, “All deep sense of feeling “dedicated to “all sightless Nigerians” is a return to the celebration of nature- the wind, sun, water and a pretty girl- with its wealth of beauty, goodness, abundance, helpfulness and succour messages on music, marriages, love, poetry, birthdays etc. the social media are now a popular meeting point for people the world over where they Daily share their feelings, convictions, intimacy.

“Fakes” exposes the avalanche and illustrations of the fake existence of the people- they live false lives, manufacture and distribute fake products, create false jobs through which others are exploited and keep pretending to be who they are not. All classes of people are involved in this ugly manifestation- the rich, poor, old and young: “fakes position…/terrains”. Members of the security forces- policemen and soldiers observe and perform actions to their calling, telling lies, arresting innocent persons, always out “for a good harvest of/ pleading civilians”. Civilians equally adorn security uniforms, “on farms and villages, murdering/all in sight filming gleefully…” and they “could be your neighbour,/friends, family members, driver/assassins complaining loudly about costs/or, bank cyber attackers”. People are their own sworn enemies- they are all cheats, children sellers, pretenders, sycophants, killers, agents of evils manipulators, bribe givers, deceivers, thieves, blackmailers and even religious adherents are as evil as ordinary persons on the street- “Fake pastors and imams like/politicians in myopia and ignorance/hate the liberated seen as/dangerous to his survival”. It is society where professionals are equally fake: “Fake doctors…/Harvesters of contemporary crops:/Kidneys, hearts, eyes…” and national lawmakers are “busily padding budgets,/silent to the horrendous criminal marriages;/endorse violent expressions of masculinity,/no penalty for despicable intercourse with minors”. One aesthetic element of this poem is irony, especially as criminals and wrong-mannered fellows keep warning others to ‘Be vigilant’! There are captivating simplicity, rich visual imagery and infectious metaphors adorning the lines.

Prof. M. Vicky Sylvester

In “fear of the night”, the poet-persona captures the high level insecurity, criminality, uncertainty of the society using the metaphor of the night so effectively. She asks her friend to hold into him.. “disperse that/fear of night hunters/who hung around after the party”. But she was also a victim of robbers, desecrators, rapists and violent hoodlums: “Suspected robbers conversant with/your kitchen…/they broke in, dishonored us/ate our food and walked away…../Four months today I’m positive/friend they took nothing,/left us raped and filled us with death serum./I weep all day and fear the night/For fear of the impractical lockdown”. There is no security for any person in this terrorized environment; all are in danger of possible rape, molestation, attacks and disease especially at a period of “Covid-19”. Insecurity and daily threats to life make people think only of the day’s survival as tomorrow is unknown: “you will be here today for tomorrow is unknown./Today elaborately describes us/today’s dresses are but rags tomorrow./Live and err no more”. The night is not a blessing but on moment of agony, tremor, discomfort, sleeplessness and innate paralysis.

The Gbayis are no one of the mostly farming, minor ethnic groups in Nigeria found in the Federal capital Territory, Niger, Kogi, Kaduna and Plateau States. In “And Simon cried”, the poet-persona captures the reality of “Garki village” which though strategically located for “Business and residential” but which the elites dominated, pushing the poor, land owners far “to the homelands/for a city on their farmlands”. Simon is the symbol of the poor folks who “hung his head and wept” having suffered depression, exploitation, dispossession; Minority groups do suffer such indignity and pain in many African communities. The tone of bitterness and frustration cannot be missed! Examples of end rhymes are: “homelands/farmlands” and “vegs/wept”.

In “German dogs and snakes”, home owners’ story is what the poet-persona narrates. While keeping dangerous animals to protect their homes as “the fences are porous,/no longer protect those within” and only “shield robbers from neighbours and police patrols”, they hardly knew that their security and protection could not be guaranteed despite their German dogs and snakes. One of such owners, was rather reckless with sex and with a wife of immoral disposition; he never knew of “the unknown enemy!” He and his dog were killed by one of such enemies “known to the master, dogs and snakes” while the “snake was not found in the open backdoor/where it had likely slipped out/to feed on night crawlers”. Man lives a life of potential danger, uncertainty, recklessness and death and yet hopes to be protected through his own designs. This is the source of biting irony in the poem- man is ignorant, careless, limited in wisdom; what he calls sources of his protection are sheerly of his own destruction; man is man’s own destroyer! Also, how could a man depend on lower animals for his own defence and protection? Finally, what has society done, security-wise, to protect her citizen? In “incidental”, the poet-narrator speaks of environmental pollution, crowded living houses and poor people and families who are continuously exploited even by those with whom they should identify: “… the gutter,/overgrown with grass and dirt,/the apartment blocks crowded…”. It is a choked environment “with two huge block of flats,/civil service freedom to sell and enrich staff,/ “boys quarter” spaces too for sale/to uniformed officers poor public servants/will not dare confront”. This is a dirty, unkept and unplanned environment of people “of no status/with no access to the minister/and whose votes did not count”. The children here are symbols of poverty, wretchedness, joblessness, suffering, proneners to armed robbery and unending neglect while the officers in charge of the flats are symbols of corruption, exploitation, greed, graft, selfishness and lawlessness The poet pokes fun at Nigeria’s electoral system in : “Jega counts the votes/Someone listen, come”. There are alliterations like: “… siblings and guests,/look solemnly in solidarity” and “street are sounds”. There is a free flow of words simplifying the poem.

The poet-persona in “Where are Funmilayo Ransome–Kuti’s market women?” seeks after a test of the valiancy, strength, bravery, conviction and mobilizational powers of women in today’s society who- like the historic activist, leader and educationist- should wake up and struggle for a unique place in today’s history by sensitizing and mobilizing the women-folk. Mrs Ransome-kuti, Margaret Ekpo and Gambo Sawaba were some of the women who influenced women in the past. The poet-persona honours “the market women”, “the women of commerce” for what they did in the past with their leaders and seeks after a re-enactment of such heroic deeds and activism. The poet uses rhetorical questions: “Where are the market women?/…. Where are the women of commerce?… Where are the cornerstones?” While also repeating “Daughter of my heart” for thematic emphasis. To the persona, “one of their/brave family economic planner” because they know the true power of commerce, economic planning and industrialization, being active professionals! In the poem, “Good morning, Nigeria”, the poet-persona dramatically enacts Nigeria’s history since independence in 1960 which has been a catalogue of seedy, headachy, pestilential encounters and situations of corruption, leadership miasma, backwardness, stagnation, brain drain, hardship, exploitation, poverty, insecurity, inequality, frustration, lawlessness, injustice, ethnic and tribe crises, violence, ill-health, hopelessness and dependence on foreign powers in the name of aids.

This long poem is a complete holistic reflection of the troubles, darkness, socio-political upheavals the country has gone through over the years (shortly before the 50th year of independence!). it is “an illusionary period” and not “New Nigeria” with harsh realities of rapid increase in prices of goods and services, tales of empty “gas stations../empty treasures/hungry teachers and overworked doctors…/fight for ethnic interests,/I call state of unequal opportunities,/The police are nightmarish extortionists and rapists./…military mentality…/;legislator’s charms, acids, brawls, bowls rent the air…/…the face of poverty in NGO gowns…/the disabled crowd my streets…/shadows of capital accumulators/ set Kaduna refinery on fires/…gun shot ushering in the millennium…/… ethnic voices of riotous youth/…the tide of western dictates./… Lives translated into a nightmare…/My teachers… turn against themselves/My children public schools/Study under trees,/ dusty floors adorned by leaky roofs/ No Libraries, nor qualified teachers/in subjects now compulsory/for University admission./Poor salaries lie for months/in a private account to predicate and elevate profiles/and advises on research and conferences/are no longer to expand experience/they complement sycophancy and ethnicity/Hooliganism cultism,/bribery and forgery mingled/and the world feasts on our rot”. There is no doubt that these simple, truth-bearing and incontestable evidence illustrate the crushing meaninglessness, emptiness, corruption-ridden and stagnant independence in 50 years. Yet, no new lessons are positively learnt. Some political leaders, symbolized by The “7-point Agenda” who know that in other climes within “the global village,/Education is a right,/Small businesses are run by electricity”- maintain an ignoble life of greed, corruption, selfishness and inhumanity: “the inflation of budgets gives me sleepless nights/for contracts never executed”. Indeed, the “operators” of the “7-point Agenda” insist on: “a hundred thousand a day for lunch,/4 lunches more than a professors monthly pay,/the inflation of budgets…” Life in Nigeria has remained a nightmare. The poet is linguistically creative as seen in the use of “hum-animals” as a devastating symbol of our collective animality!

“Amina” is a poem in which, narrates thee experience of a lady who deliberately embraced a culture different from hers by learning a new language, dress code and foreign mannerism. Through a scholarship, she trained at “the prestigious school by the sea./… Without the missed a tone/In 5 years of boarding school”. Though she belonged “to the lucky generation/Of gender sensitivity/In education, good jobs/Good position in the right dress/ And right dialect/Followed the trends/Often spiced with the Familiar to those who knew”. Privileged and socially exposed, Amina overreached herself after getting married to “a guy with a high sounding name,/4 kids and lost carefulness’. She revolted against the existing peace in her home and lost the expected reverence of the marriage institution. Her husband got married to “a less exotic damsel” while Amina “chose single parenthood,/moved to a new town,/unclogged by the familiar”. While it is positive to cling on the progressive values, modestly, through education and exposure, it quite dangerous and inimical to overdo personal choices in the name of being a feminist, from the example of Amina. She became deracinated, lost her socio-cultural bearing and became a foreigner: “..She flourished as citien/Hold unto supposed roots/Vanily claimed rights,/Hung out with luminaries/Of the learned dialect/And the native”. She was no longer of immediate benefit to her people back home. Hers is an example of all those who have immodestly lost their sociocultural bearings. The poem appears in a simple language and Amina is a symbol of all those uprooted from their cultural base through education. A good feature used is end rhymes: “protection/generation” and “dress/trends/dialect”. There is an alliteration too: “a scholarship to the prestigious school by the sea”.

“Floodgate” narrates a salon experience. The business was run on “a worn out gen” and because of the common experience of “power outage”, women hoping to work on their hair, left the salon. But the poet-persona who stayed back and watched situations as they unfolded: “…feeling with my fingers,/the wet strands of hair./I had dared nature’s energy to suck the wetness…” She saw “sweaty faces of teenagers peering into scratch cards…/the adults reading and replying mails on YAHOO!/the hackers relaxed, unhurried”. And a boy and girl trying to engage in sex though electricity light was suddenly restored and the security man switched “off the gen”. the poem is on the irresponsible life of the youth, their sexual immorality, lack of vision and enthusiasm for progress and a commitment to fraud and hacking mechanisms. The society is dark-souled and futureless with youth who should be planning to be future leaders; it is a world of confusion. Ironically, “It is the era, the floodgate of knowledge./On gen, Nigeria joins the global village”. With the darkness of its underdevelopment and the recklessness its youth, Nigeria is fated to experience a floodgate of ignorance and death! There are graphic symbols of darkness, stagnation, confusion, lustfulness, suffering and failed business. There is the sense of drama especially between the girl and body: “… making cow eyes at each other:/shouting whispers, their foreheads close. The girl frequently pricks his chest with a finger,/the boy consistently eying the belly-button…”. There is alliteration in: “sweaty faces of teenagers peering into scratch cards,…”.

In the poem “Electricity cable”, the poet presents, in a form of letters, complaints on lack of electricity to the officials in charge of its provision and the response from the office. Writing to the “Managing Director”, the public complained of “electricity outage…. Large losses,/conflicting stories make the jobs extremely difficult,/planning and execution is impossible” to which he offered a response that there was a “frantic effort to replace the cable,/normalcy will be restored soon,…” The public threatened to call the police when nothing was done but the MD responded as he did before. This is a spectacle of official falsehood, insensitivity, ineptitude and unseriousness, symbolizing an experience of darkness. Such a situation applies in many government offices, sustained through lies, escapism, carelessness and disrespect to members of the public. Irony sweeps through this poem because it was most certain that normalcy will not be restored soon! It is also humorous to thank the victims ‘for your usual cooperation”. Another poem, “Collaboration” seems an extension to the theme already mentioned. Government officials are often full of untruths, abuse of office, corruption, exploitation, criminality , and insensitivity and the poet-persona starts off: “Stranger than fiction are the deals of staff in this agency./We collaborate with neighbours and work, they reap…/I was not received on arrival…/The official residence houses contraband,/the goods come under diplomatic cover”. Official secrecy is a cover for fraudulent, criminal, illegal actions and deeds: “The secrecy is stressful, /The atmosphere darker…./They connive with my hosts to defraud me/of 75 percent approved budget,/of settlement allowance…”. The persona, a researcher is left “without an office” when “the DG” could make a trip to Ghana with “secretaries, translators, book keepers”; also the “research office is used by accounts clerk and typist…/I come to work in a taxi, my unassigned car smouldering with dust”. Leadership deficiencies, misplacement of priorities, wastefulness, wickedness, official indecency, treachery, greed, stealing and graft are what are see in all major establishments especially those of monetary impact. Ironically, the persona concludes: “The DG is a Satanist/rightly place in this monetary agency supported by our country”. There is an alliteration also which energises the lyrical import: “secrecy is stressful”. In Nigeria, research is undermined as work ethics are questionable. Brilliant, committed and hardworking person are often pushed aside while mediocrities occupy important places.

“Experience is a woman”-the collection of poems” title- and the poet-persona is bothered with the poverty, pretence, anxieties, deceit, hopelessness and idiocy inherent in a polygamous home though the perpetrators often see same as manifestation of wealth, comfort and popularity: “The man next door is rich with 3 wives,/16 children…./And there have been deaths/of accidents, illness, violence…./of kidnap, beatings, gun shots, rapes, cults/and once a screw driver in a girl”. Polygamy often serves as a good setting for the display of erratic, indecent, inhuman, violent and lawless mannerisms because of the multiplicity of people with different understanding and approach to life. Polygamy reveals impotence of marriage, child bearing, and selfish desires of the men and women involved: “… a fresh wedding./The first wife is grooming the innocent/ in the intrigues of polygamy/to grab diamonds each outing ….” Greed, uncertainty, graft and fake love and appreciation often dominate a polygamous home. While men proudly display masculine potency, “new-found powers,/soaring to the ordinary men’s envy/like a god to toilers and women”, the waves plan to “grab large diamonds” when the men’s wings would “crumble to dust,/outstripped and transformed, disguise soon transparent,/small, weak in those aged parts and graceless”. New wives must learn sharp techniques of disguise: “Learn the eye contact, little hand movements, shy look/Fane the courageous shiver, non-resourceful, no original word, …” and the men’s, masculine, potentials would soon fade off: “He gets weak by the day/and gets the largest diamonds./It won’t be long,/The festival mood soon fades”. Polygamy is a metaphoric trap of poverty, greed, gainless lust, marital meaninglessness, carelessness, hypocrisy and insensitivity, though the tone and mood of the poem is light. The poet also throws pun at avowed monogamists: “The proclaimed feminists fare worse,/believing a dreamed monogamy that leaves them empty…”. In a society lost in hypocrisy, deceitfulness and lust, neither polygamy nor monogamy serves a useful marriage impact. There are also end rhymes: “wives/thieves”, “worse/malls”, “violence/graceless” and “innocent/transparent”.

In “A female vice-president”, the persona through the inspirational lines, campaigns for active women participation in politics, to especially clamour for position of a vice-president, as “what has never been done,/needs steps never taken”. Though seemingly impossible as “Thin clouds it may seem…”, women politicians should embrace the challenge and make their impact felt: “It’s a mistake to wait for ancestral spirits/who have passed the baton” to them to free themselves from “the hazards of toil…/mush is expected of your head”. In a patriarchal society, women are suppressed, cowed, marginalized, disrespected and seen as uncreative underdogs but they have a duty to make their voices heard in a significant way: “You must hunt on your own…./tough and hard/not for the meek or praise singing”. Those opposed to purposeful women leadership have pushed to society “into the ocean of greed and discontent” though modern women have “ingredients of experience’ and seek after “the right recipe for good governance” as practicalized in the UK after whom we ape”. A simple, lyrical poem fleshed out in a simple diction and visual images with a tone of mockery of a soulless society, it has an end rhyme: “harvest/discontent”. In “The traveler”, the poet-persona narrates the story of a traumatized housewife fearful for her hardworking, restless husband, whose business makes him travel every other time regardless of the dangers, uncertainties, threats involved. Its theme is of the uncertainty of life in a turbulent society “where dogs prey/on travelers and bury them”. The “marketing manager’s wife waited all night”- a poor, hopeless, fearful, lonely mother of a sick child- but it is uncertain that helpless, husband would ever return even when “She hated to have him back in the dark”. The poem is a bold statement, rich in poignant, images and symbols of darkness, isolation, uncertainty, poverty, loneliness, fear, sickness, insecurity, selfishness, insanity and cannibalism with specific reference to “Kaduna” and “the Plateau”, centres of ethnic and religious crises in Nigeria.

In “Naming and zoning”, the poet-persona wonders loudly why ethnicity, regionalism and tribalism are allowed to have a foothold in her socio-political experience, having successfully attained independence in 1960. Though the “foreigner” who gave Nigeria her name “spoke no indigenous word”, he created “religions” named “up, down, left, right, /and the states after rivers. /Geographical locations and dimensions/Majestically gave their sounds to nations”. The early mistakes were quite obvious, propelled by the intervention of foreigners in defining Nigeria’s name and structure, all of which have led to today’s socio-political miasma and uncertainty. The story of the country has been so soaked in the reality confusion, divisions, sectionalism conspiracies: “This is Nigeria…/ North, South, East and West,/ North-west, North-east, North-central,/ South-east and South-west…”. What prevails in the soul of Nigeria is the spirit of unhealthy competition, hatred, dubious population censors, suspicion and struggle for power as seen in the symbols of “… like the goddess Athens competing with Poseidon/for the soul of Athens using/trickery, intimidation, wealth and number/in the political and economic space,/the rich soil, the simple toilers claiming equality with God”. Bad leadership inequality, ethnic antagonisms and lack of development are features of the foundational crisis. Today, there is no singularity of voice and vision, no thorough self-understanding capable of propelling a glorious socio-political path for of Nigeria: “We listened to the general condemnations…/no voices or names for the senseless murders./ They can whisper new names and connotations/for INEC, FEC, GOODLUCK, LOYALTY, PATIENCE, PDP zoning,/ UNZONE when it outlived its usefulness”.

There is now a regime of cheap popularization of wrong political deals and uncertainly defined ideological frameworks. Wrong-headedness is the name for contemporary Nigeria: “It’s not the EFCC’S probe…/… for Ibori in Dubai./… Akunyili as INEC Chairman,/ the ash cloud in Iceland befuddles Naija news…”. There is gross aura of insensitivity, pursuit of negativity, illiteracy, disunity, confused values, political unseriousness, criminality, kidnapping and colonial mentality. The poem is rich in allegories and allusions especially to the Atheism history and the contemporary political history of Nigeria. Actual people’s names and places are also referenced. There is sarcasm in naming Nigeria, “Naija” where “There is rare environmental hazards” but neglected for irrelevance, power play and arrogance and official ineptitude: “all overshadow the daily killings on the Plateau,/ a plateau is no man’s land”. In the poem, “The popular citizen”, the poet-persona paints the picture of Okon “a houseboy” whose life “gives joy to the ill at ease, the sick, the innocence and naivety are to his credit;/Reports uphold his equal obedience to madam and oga”. He is full of drama as seen in his “laughter”, “silence”, “His words, loud enough…/His tone and expression, lighten a mood room/and evokes recommendations”. But Okon is a symbol of Physical exploitation and a tool of sexual recklessness as seen in his relationship with the boss and promiscuous wife. The fact of his illiteracy and seedy availability, aids this phenomenon of his life, yet he thinks he is enjoying every moment of his employment. Asked by “madam” of her predicament, he submits: “Yes ma. It was big and full of grass!” a reference to her reckless, adulterous life! Okon is competent as “a lover and driver” and capable of being “motionless and mute at the right moments”. His boss, openly flirting with the illiterate housemaids, also testifies to his own sexual laxity: “You are better than madam”./ ‘That’s what Okon tells me too. You good pass madam!” Obvious, Okon sleeps with her too just as the boss does. Yet, Okon is a irresponsible gossip, a lousy, “moderate and good conversationalist/ He knows the people oga knows in politics and the social circle,/Even shook hands with hands with a few”. His humorous openness and populist character open him up to the whims of kidnappers and weed dealers and the promiscuous “food seller twice a week”. Okon is a danger to himself and those in his environment; his life is a metaphor of poverty, perversity, sexual recklessness, immoral lousiness, stupidity which though personal, endangers the lives of others. Okon’s popularity does not come on a note of persona achievements or patriotic sentiments but as a notorious informant, promiscuous illiterate and a source of humorous entertainment which made him ignorant of the dangers the poses to his society. The alliterations used here include: “… brings smiles to the gloomiest mood s” and “Madam’s soapy nakedness draws his hand to caress” while similes include: “…his comings and goings like the moon behind the tree” and “…to madam like a bird in flight” which give lyrical symphony to the lives. The element of humour is developed through Okon!

In the poem, “The sympathetic feminist”, the poet-persona explores the exercise in painting by a feminist of the troubled world of the “suffering women”, the “unhappy union of sorts”, but whose efforts are not deep enough, efforts soaked in a selfish pursuit steeped in hypocrisy and “deficient ideas;/Pandering to his own tantrums. / It is stomach induced posturing/Cow eye of sorts for victims who/Imbibe the sweet words/ That curtail no flying stones”. This painter is not stimulated by a true desire to capture the reality of the suffering women, “burdens” their agonies and tears of frustration, hunger and victimization in society. Rather what he does is pretend to be in their service and support and wants freedom and transformation for their lives; he “talks knowingly to the next less suffering succour”. He relies on their sufferings and heartbreaks to find his daily bread, “of one graduated from hypocrisy/to sponsored ultimate sympathy”. While painting the “cultural humiliations” of the women in society, he is himself “equally guilty”. The poem is rich in ironies and strong images of hypocrisy, betrayal, pretence, untruthfulness, unfaithfulness, and selfishness while being suffused with repetitions of: “His portrayal of abused suffering women…”. Some alliterations here are: “Shrouded in nets of strong cobwebs”, “voices of sympathetic succour” and “Soon streaks of sun play on his closed eyes” while end rhymes include: “hypocrisy/sympathy”. The painter is an image of an insensitive society which survives on lack of regard for its numerous sufferings, dejected masses. Such an impotent society is again presented in another poem, “Election Folder” depicting the wildness, uncultured approach to politics and leadership; a society of hunger, danger, hired killing, endless poverty and insecurity. Politicians brutally sacrifice human lives to gain power, influence and relevance. A prostitute, later sacrificed, had “gone in with a well-dressed politician with a big car/Her clitoris was incised and further down, her womb. / She had warned them not to disturb her important guest/And danced her last dance like a wild bloomstone on the wayside/… In quest for the ritual meat for election victory”. Power seekers in this society are wicked, inhuman, conscienceless, ungodly, mischievous and self-serving. Even “Organs of child bearing give birth to success’’, ‘’girls live behind these ugly unprotected walls/Haunted down by venomous thieves’’. After the evil actions, such as politicians hire killers to monitor opponents for elimination, and ‘’an endless price of killings and media denials ‘’ follow. In a simple manner, the poem projects the themes of political wickedness, brutal killings, insecurity of lives, violence, ritualism, cannibalism and prostitution. The images here are bold and carefully woven into the fabric of the lyrics for a delightful reading and understanding. There is an irony in the ignorant prostitute’s attempt to protect her later killer. He is presented as “the grass cutters…/In quest for the ritual meat for election victory”.

“Sunshine shame” is one poem which compares Nigeria’s past and present and in a direct manner, the poet-persona wonders aloud why the new generation, “the sunshine generation”- which should be called a dark generation, indeed! – should refuse to embrace, fresh lines of political decency, moral seriousness, economic transformation and true cultural emancipation, despite the modern advantages at their disposal particularly bred by exposure to education; the mindless mistakes and misadventures followed by their parents are still very much with the children! The persona confesses: “I laugh tears at myself when I see parents/scold children innocently display traits/ bequeathed to them”.

The parents mismanaged independence kicked against decent politicking and kicked against decent politicking and leadership, invested poverty in the midst of wealth and damaged the spirit of expected cultures of literacy, social development and healthy competition with the developed world. Independence has been a source of tears, failure, setback, darkness, suffering and underdevelopment. The poem is full of images of lamentation and agony: “surely, parents know the children walk their steps./The baby tortoise inherits its parent’s wiles!”/ indeed, “Our manners…covered/in transparent borrowed apparels”. We are a naked people, shameless, wasteful, undisciplined and despite recent advantages of education available to “the sunshine generation freely gifted./Every skill to transform the land into paradise,/free education and lavish meals in pursuit/of educating future leaders”, what we have seen are elements of crushed hopes, dashed ambitions and crippled dreams; we now have “brain drain”, our “cash crops” have been abandoned, we sing an empty national anthem, indicating a “bane of cheap inheritance”. With independence came high expectations and dreams and our initial political leaders pretended to be seriously engaged-minded: “But after the grooming, after all the prep work,/we continue to trip on a field without obstacles;/we broke the baton, soiled the standard./We forget we started with others/far behind from the same point”. The themes of backwardness, underdevelopment, bad leadership, hollow socio-political choices and economic stagnation are established. The post-independence era is one of fruitlessness, hunger, self-enchainment and stagnation: “A better-lit path than others not as we were/but along Independence”. Other less endowed countries have moved on far ahead but our natural resources are being wasted and selfishly exploited while the populace daily experience agony, hoplessness, joblessness, criminality: “we, boasting as giants of the forest believed in a disabling creed:/we stole without shame, broke laws without consequences;/corrupted a good destiny without fear of paying back painfully”. The children see our collective shame, buying foreign products, borrowing from foreigners, and resources of crude oil, palm oil, tin and coal mines are all wasted. Indeed, “palm trees, timber and groundnuts…./Now all sneer at us always last in every contest of note/beaten by those who used to surrender without facing us…/We bewitched ourselves into retardation and dumbness…./We must have started it so wrong, intoxicating prosperity/ in childhood and poverty in adult life- what a choice to make!” the poem is a detailed catalogue of our glaring failings as a nation and people. The images are mostly picturesque and tears-inducing and the satire cannot be missed. The lengthy lines of the second segment uphold the lyrical power of the poem.

The last segment of the collection is titled “Of Honour And Luminaries” and it begins with “Pope John Paul the second in Nigeria”. To the world of Christians, the Pope symbolizes chastity, love, peace, unity, understanding, forgiveness, humility, justice, spiritual dignity, harmony and blessing. The poet-persona paints a robust, progressive picture of the Pope whose visit to Nigeria should “heal/pains of poverty and political injustice, earning the world friends of unlikely foes”. The poem is an eulogy dignifying the Pope whose visit should out “distrust of religious differences/ and reawakening harmony that calms turbulent storms”; his visit was to expose “the worthless journeys of nothingness”, reawaken “the joyful/unity of one Godhead./ Hearts long divided by modes of worship/ eliminating enmity that love may reign”. In Nigeria, there has been absence of love, unity, understanding and religious tolerance but with the Pope’s coming, the people should “Find God in our multi-cultural hearts”; “impeccable message to an imperturbable people” and consider visiting again to “reassure our checkered confidence/ in a united faith and nation/ among nations of God family”. The Pope as a symbol of decency, decorum, tolerance, peace and unity is not only good for mobilizing Christians but should serve as an example for the human race in pursuing and achieving mobility of existence and world peace. He represents what God represents and his image should envelope a world in search of peace, unity and development. A simple but powerful poem of easy linguistic flow and inimitable symbols. An alliteration here is: “impeccable message to an imperturbable people” while end rhymes include: “nothingness/ Holiness/ confidence”, “reign/rains” and “cross-admonishing/outpouring”.

In the poem, “A hymn for Tajudeen”, the poet-persona acknowledges a renowned African activist, educationist, and an inimitable example in creativity, unity, decorum, fellow-feeling, patriotism and welfarism. Though dead, Tajudeen is still being heroically remembered and celebrated. He was Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem (January, 1961-May 25, 2009), a respected Pan-African scholar and much-honoured activist; General Secretary of the 7th Pan-African Congress (1994), Director of Justice Africa, the Deputy Director of United Nations Millennium Campaign for Africa and prominent journalist- according to the Wikipedia.

The poet-persona cherishes his memory: “If I knew my employer,/ I would sing him/her a song/And send blossoms of sun flowers”. He is a symbol of self-discipline, hardwork, integrity, tolerance, forthrightness, openness, selflessness. The school he set up” in the North-east,/the best most voluntary teaching school/with no religious or ethnic undertones”. He is a great man, comparable to ancient gods: “And Taju will overshadow Zeus and I”. He is a statesman, “greater than Arachne/in weaving his epitaph./He redefined state and citizen relationship, man and society”. This expression on him is repeated at end of the poem! The images in the poem are of songs, hymn, festivals, flowers, anniversary, freedom, legacy and epitaph! He represents nobility of action and virtuosity of vision as an African activist who motivated a handsome number of people. The allusions to the gods – Zeus and Arachue – transform him into a being greater than the ordinary. There is the use of literary echo in the names of those to be honoured, at a festival, with Tajudeen: David Ker (a distinguished literary critic, administrator, and scholar), Akachi Adimora- Ezeigbe (a Professor and distinguished literary critic, novelist, poet and scholar) and Ibrahim Tahir (the late scholar politician, sociologist, and Taltan Bauchi). The life and times of Tajudeen prove that intellectuals have a role to transform society and influence the direction of change in the contemporary times.

The society of today hardly tolerates gender equality; it hates to see women freedom and uniqueness. Women are still seen as underdogs, weaker sex, financial exploiters and incapable of playing noble roles. This is the concern of the poet-persona in the poem, “Death row”. He sees the experiences of women as undeserving, crude, insane and backward in orientation. The poet hates to see women suffer, suppressed, maltreated, wasted or killed: “If I were strong and bold and connected, I I’d let off on parole these women/commuted to death sentences./They die in hundreds of thousands in childbirth”. The society is unjust and wicked to women; it discriminates demonically against them.

Women are often molested, killed and traumatized. In the poem, the story is narrated of how “a man with fiery eyes” chased and matchetted his wife to death because “She had cheated on him with his boss”. Though arrested, he was soon left off the hook one” dusty November morn”, travelled “several towns in ringlets of dust” and dropped her belongings in her family house because “he needed to start off./He did not collect the two children”. Themes of dispossession, marital brutality, limitations of patriarchy and society’s insensitivity are featured here with attendant symbols hatred, uncontrolled anger, mischief and wickedness. The man’s rejection of his own children suggests a symbol of parental insensitivity and disrespect for what the future holds. The marriage institution is now subject to abuses, dishonor and meaninglessness as women face a catalogue of crises: “For decades, we hear of women found in men’s wardrobes/vomiting money,/behind the yard in a hidden grave/ where they piss in the mornings…/In the twinkling of an eye,/wife is in jail for life”. Women experience ritual killings, injustice, brutalization in the hands of men who often see themselves as overlords and leaders. Because of the kind of renewed sensitivity and awareness created by “Africa Magic…./with movies of wives killing husbands/and men now marry in joys and fears/baskets of advice from relatives”. The point is that there is no sufficiently of attempts, as of yet, to preach the new concepts of sensitivity and modernity regarding women’s treatment in society. Yet, women should experience a new dawn far from their usual encounters with rejection, violence, suffering, negligence, isolation, poverty and ritualism. This poem is easily one of the easiest in style of presentation.

“2010 budget for life” is the last poem in the collection. Short as it is, it is a satire on the national budget which ritualistically, the Nigerian government head, often reads out at the beginning of every year. It is dedicated to Goodluck Jonathan, former President and Commander-in-Chief who symbolically represents the authority and supposed authenticity of the annual budget. But the poem is a sweeping but poignant satire because it addresses what prevails in the opposite direction, almost every other year: “Give us a budget for life/oh excellent among excellences!/Give us a budget of hope,/broadcast it at dawn…”. The national budget, most times, contains no hope nor is it excellently planned; it contains promises of hopelessness, non-implementation powers, obsession with lousy and meaningless monetary figures, raises empty hopes and is fresh with unreason: “before the noise around us/stills away reason;/before men and women/returning from night markets/rise from their wares”. Budgets are often of ironic impact- potentially hollow, lousy with figures, retrogressive, lifeless, time-wasting and ineffective. It is often a statement of popular betrayal, lacking substance and meaning. The poem’s power radiates round its irony and brevity of diction and pointedness. It is laced with humour!

In this first collection of poems which breathes multiplicity of themes, credible mastery of style, suitable control of language and enervating lyrical energy, Professor Sylvester has announced her poetic gifts which will not end with Experience Is A Woman and Other Poems (2024)!

* Fajenyo, a poet, novelist, critic and biographer, writes from Lagos, Nigeria